Letters: The Sunshine Coast deserves better 911 services

Editor: 

Is anyone else frustrated with response times for police or any other emergency personnel? 

Recently the hospital called to report a patient had been taken from the property without authorization.  It was not a 911 call, but after a full hour, another more urgent call was placed this time to the “after hours” dispatcher in Vancouver, and it was almost another ½ hour before police arrived.  

It is certainly possible that the police were busy at the time, but my experience (as a citizen, and previously as part of the system) has been extremely frustrating. Another scenario I was directly involved in occurred when a woman fell and received a head injury on a very cold icy Sunday morning at approximately 9:30 a.m. I called 911 and when the ambulance attendants arrived almost an hour later, I learned they were not busy, but because the 911 operator is in Vancouver, the call was put into a priority sequence for the Vancouver dispatcher, because they were busy in Vancouver. 

Our Coast deserves better service, and to have a dedicated 24/7, 911 operator actually situated on the Coast.  This is NOT a criticism of our local emergency services, but of a system that doesn’t work well enough.    

The other criticism of the system is that all of the information is put into their computer before it is sent to the personnel attending to the emergency. I get that they need name, address and phone number, before dispatching, but do they really need my shoe size, favorite colour, pet’s name and other needless information, while emergencies can escalate to something more critical?  In some situations, even those that didn’t start as an emergency, can lead to serious situations. 

It’s time to put our big boy pants on and get a better 911 system. 

Wayne Plimmer, Sechelt